


do a good turn daily

by jugheadjones



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Drabble, M/M, Post Episode 3, kinda jarchie kinda reghead, the holy trinity in other words, the writing is s h it, this is bad but im a fool for regchie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-12
Updated: 2017-02-12
Packaged: 2018-09-23 20:49:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9676010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jugheadjones/pseuds/jugheadjones
Summary: “Ronnie told me your name was in that book.”“So what?” Reggie tosses a towel into his bag and hefts it over his shoulder, turning to go. Archie blocks his exit.“I never figured you were that kind of guy, Reggie.”or, Archie confronts Reggie after the events of 1x03. Stuff happens.





	

“Ronnie told me your name was in that book.”

“So what?” Reggie tosses a towel into his bag and hefts it over his shoulder, turning to go. Archie blocks his exit.

“I never figured you were that kind of guy, Reggie.”

Reggie scoffs, not stepping back, even though Archie’s chest is only inches from his. “What do you want from me, Andrews? A fight?” With a derisive laugh, he turns back to his unlocked locker and hooks the combination lock through his finger. “Your girlfriends already took care of this team. With Clayton and Jason out, we don’t have a chance at the Nationals. Not to mention everyone else who got kicked.” He slams his locker door. “If I went around apologizing for things I can’t control; I’d be an idiot.” 

His nonchalant demeanour makes a pit of annoyance burn in Archie’s stomach. “And how’d you keep your spot? Your dad buy it for you?”

Reggie’s face is suddenly deadly serious. “Don’t joke about things you don’t know shit about, okay?”

“Sorry.” Archie finds himself apologizing, eyes flickering to the floor without knowing why as Reggie turns the numbers on his combination lock. “But none of you guys had the right to- "  

“To let them score me? To put my name in a stupid notebook? Excuse me for existing.” Reggie tries once more to push past him, but Archie steps sideways to block his way. Reggie scoffs loudly, throwing up his hands in annoyance.

“Seriously, what do you want me to tell you? I know it was a shit thing to do. Guys are fucked up, everyone knows that.”

Archie folds his arms. “You’re acting like you weren’t complacent in this.”

“Yeah, and you’re acting like you think it’s easy to be the only guy on this team who isn’t strictly into pussy.”

“What?”

Reggie keeps his stare evenly, but Archie sees the other boy trying to relegate his breathing, the way Archie does when he knows his heart’s beating too fast. When Reggie speaks, his hands are shaking, though his voice stays steady and cool. “I know you heard what I said, Arch, so let me the fuck out. I don’t have time for your games.”

 “Reg-”

 “Fuck you.”

Reggie turns away from him, and Archie has the horrible thought that he might be crying. He takes a tiny step toward him. “I didn’t know-”

“That was kind of the point.”

“Does anyone else know-?”

Reggie turns back to look at him, eyes blazing but dry. His voice is light, even. “They were starting to figure it out. And we share a locker room.”

“It’s nothing to be ashamed of –“

“Ashamed of? Hell, no, I’m not ashamed of it! But I don’t have friends like you do, okay Arch?” He folds his arms over his chest. “If they decide I’m gonna be a certain way, that’s what I am. Or I’m a nobody.”

“So…” Archie begins, with dawning realization, “You go along with it-“

“So they don’t ditch me? Yeah. Sure.”

“But the things you wrote-“

“I don’t expect you to understand what it’s like.”

“Meaning what, exactly?”

“Meaning you’d stand up to them and get away with it, because that’s who you are. You’d have abolished the book and have us all singing kumbaya and being blood brothers by sundown. But we can’t all be Archie Andrews.”

“I don’t get it.”

Reggie heaves a long sigh and sets his bag down on the wooden bench with a thud. “You don’t get it because you don’t understand that you’re the exception, not the rule. You’re Riverdale’s golden boy. You can be who you are and say what you want and no one gives a shit.” 

Archie scoffs, thinking of his guitar. “Wanna bet?”

“Come on. You could crawl through the plumbing here after Moose took a dump and come out clean. Girls love you. You have real friends. You don’t know it, Arch, but I’ve always envied you for having friends who would stick their neck out for you.”

Archie blinks, trying to wrap his head around this. “But you’re so popular, Reg-“

“Like that counts. I’m talking Betty, Kevin, Jughead. You have people who like you. Who’d stick by you.”

“You’re my friend." 

Reggie shrugs. “Before they had to replace Jason, you and I hadn’t talked since grade school. We would have gone on not talking for the rest of our lives.”

He sounds so confident that Archie has to stop for a moment and consider it. Reggie sighs and shakes his hair out of his face.

“Can I go?" 

“So what was your plan?” Archie asks, quieter now. “Just keep doing shit like this, acting like an asshole just to get along with these guys? Hiding who you are? They’re jerks!”

“That’s what high school’s _about_ , Arch. It’s not all rah-rah-rah and football games. You do what you have to do until you make it out into the real world. That’s the game.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Reggie swings his bag back over his shoulder, where it bounces with a hard sound off his shoulderblade. “Ask Jughead. He’ll know what I’m talking about.”

Archie just stares at him, feeling a blind anger starting in his chest for a reason he can’t explain. “You’re the one who gives Jughead so much grief around here.”

“So tell Moose to cut it out. You can get away with it. I can’t.”

“I’m not talking about Moose, I’m talking about you bumping into him on purpose.”

“Jughead and I used to be friends, you know.”

“What?” Reggie is facing him down, expression unreadable. “When?” asks Archie, mystified. He can’t remember the last time Jughead had looked at Reggie with anything but derision.

“In first grade. Before you turned up.”

Archie takes a long moment to digest this. Tries to recall a time he and Jughead weren’t attached at the hip, tries to remember his second grade classroom. Wonders how long Reggie’s been sitting on this.

“Look, Jug and I are friends, but –“

 “I’m not _j_ ealous of _J_ ughead.” Reggie’s lips flare and turn downward at the corner of the J’s. “I guess I just wish I had someone who cared about more than my ball control.”

Archie could only stare at him. Reggie, admitting he was lonely?

Reggie must have sensed his surprise and automatically closes himself up, standing up straighter, his lips a thin line. “Look, I don’t know why I’m telling you this.” He lifts his chin, admirably confident despite it all. “Tell Veronica I’m sorry if it makes you feel better.”

“Reggie-“ He feels an ache in his chest, a need to do something, anything, and it bleeds out into his voice until the syllables hurt. Reggie just grins.

“You’re such a boy scout, sometimes. It is what it is, Arch.”

“It’s not-“

Reggie silences him with a look. “Yeah. It is.”

Archie stares at him for a long time, wondering what else he’s hiding, wishing he was Betty, who would know what to say, what to do, what to offer. At last, just to keep him there, he blurts out:

“I didn’t realize you and Jug were friends.”

Reggie shrugs, a graceful lift of both shoulders. “It was just grade one. I wouldn’t even call it that.” He scuffs his shoe against the floor. “I’m not going to pretend I was better for him. Archie and Jughead. That was the way it’s always supposed to be.”

“There’s room for a third.”

“I don’t need your pity, Arch.”

“It’s not pity.” Archie tucks his hands in his pockets, nervous, already calculating what he’s going to tell Jughead when he turns up with Reggie at the chok’lit shop. “Come out with us tonight.”

“You and Dolores Claiborne?” A grin tugs at the corners of Reggie’s lips, but Archie can see the refusal coming in his eyes. “And do what?”

“Get a sundae. Get a milkshake.”

“I’m lactose intolerant.”

“Since when?”

Reggie laughs. “Since the second grade.”

There’s something in his laugh that means the conversation is closed, but there’s a sadness in it too, something wishful that makes Archie press onward. “You could get fries.”

“Nah.” The old Reggie is back again, running a hand through his hair and kicking an old plastic water bottle on the ground out of his way. This time, Archie lets him go. “See you around Arch.”

“Will you think about it, though?”

Reggie acknowledges this with only a wave of his hand, his over-stuffed duffel bag blocking the back of his head from view as he leaves the locker room.

Archie lowers himself onto the bench, the anger and righteousness he’d started with suddenly gone. _Reggie envies me. Reggie’s scared of losing his friends. Reggie likes guys_. He stares at the far wall, trying to understand it.

Why and how did Reggie cultivate such a high opinion of him? Why couldn’t Reggie have said yes to his invitation? Why does he feel suddenly, miserably, like he’s let Reggie down?  

He feels a guilt he can’t explain, and a strange sense of insecurity, like the person he thought he was has been shaken. He takes his time packing his bag, half hoping that Reggie will appear in the doorway and take him up on the offer. Or that he’ll wake up from what has become a strange, surreal dream. 

It’s not until he’s halfway home that he realizes the trust that Reggie has put in him by leaving without a backward glance, the secrets he owns now, the buried parts of Reggie that are suddenly privy to him and him alone. 

 _You’re a good man, Reggie Mantle,_ he thinks, and wishes he could say it. Or text it, or anything.

 

 


End file.
